The Wallabies sent Nathan Sharpe out on a high as Kurtley Beale scored a last minute try to crush the hopes of a win for the Welsh fans at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. The 14-12 win added to Wallaby tour victories over England and Italy.

Wales looked on track to pick up their first win of the Autumn Internationals - and end their six-match losing streak - as they led 12-9 after four penalty kicks from fullback Leigh Halfpenny. Kurtley Beale kicked three penalties of his own though, and scored the dramatic late try.

"What better way to finish a game for a great man, our skipper who is retiring. Very relieved. Very happy. It was a true Test match. It was great to be part of it," Beale said.

"Full credit to Wales. They threw everything at us. But we always knew if we put in the effort for the full 80 minutes we could get the rewards and we were lucky to get it tonight."

After a lenthy delay to attend to Halfpenny, who was injured in the lead up to the try, lock Nathan Sharpe attempted the conversion in his 116th and final Test for his country. He came up short despite being on target, but was naturally very pleased with the win.

"Momentum in games goes one way and then the other. If you stick in games you never know what's going to happen," said Sharpe post match.

Wales captain Sam Warburton said that it was the most heartbreaking loss of his career.

"It's probably the hardest defeat I ever had to take as a player. It's absolutely gutting. It was heartbreaking to see Kurtley Beale go for the line and you knew that was it basically. It felt like today was the day we were definitely going to do it," he said.

Halfpenny is okay and has been released from hospital after being checked out following neck pain.

Viewing 38 comments

I can never understan why wings think they can beat a man to the outside when there's no space at all? You can tell he was looking for the offload as he didnt even reallytry to swerve. Step in man! Create space! Anything but try to beat a well placed defender after a 60 metre sprint with no room!

Prescient words from a poster called Ian on an unrelated thread the other day:Cuthbert is just picked because he is a monster. Give him the ball and make him run in a straight line and he is hard to stop but other than that he is useless. Can't tackle, can't catch and can't make decisions when on the move.

Appreciate the validation of the comment but I have to say this clip is different.Zee did have some room, albeit not much. I'd never want to take that from a wing, especially someone with zee's pace. Cuthbert on the other hand had no room outside at all and basically ran outta bounds

Henkie, it worked because Zee has a ridiculous amount of pace. I'd imagine there are a few wingers who could pull that off...but only a few. Ngwenya being one, and I reckon Habana might have pulled it off.

Speaking as more or less a career winger, you're right CC...Cuthbert made a hash of that. He had plenty of time to do something with the defenders. Beale and Barnes did a pretty good job of boxing him in towards the end, but he had about 30m of run where he could have come in slightly and made more space for him to use later. Also, given that he's one of those monster wingers that seem to be all the rage right now, you'd think he could have fought a little harder to avoid being hit into touch. His team-mates aren't exactly slowcoaches, and I'm sure if he'd cut in that he could have stayed in bounds and kept his feet for the second or two that it would have taken his support to get there in numbers.

You'd think the nation that gave rise to Shane Williams would be able to find some wingers with a bit of sense and a wee step...

What the fuck was the welsh number 4 doing during that last try?! All he had to do was to accelerate from a brisk walk and he had him. Or at the very least he could of reached out and grabbed him. I don't know who it is, is it Charteris?

Lou Reed. On his second international game. Looked like he was just blowing out of his arse and it was one run too many, bit more fitness work required to play at this level evidently. Or maybe try wearing a dress next cap. (Geddit? Lou Reed... I'll get my coat).

These highlights don't seem to be very balanced as the Wallabies had a few line breaks throughout the game that showed as much promise as Wales, but they didn't seem to merit making the highlight reel. To me a draw would have felt like a fair result to the game, as both teams were equally average for most of it. However the Wallabies looked pretty good in the last ~3 minutes when they had their backs to the wall and started playing a more expansive running game, and they were rewarded for having a go with the try to win it. Once again they did just enough to get over the finish line, and that looks promising to build from next year.

By the way Jonathan Davies has to be one of the worst commentators out there, if he's going to be so biased towards Wales then I wish he wouldn't pretend to be objective.

Thank you for raising this point. He is indeed the worst commentator in the world and is roughly 65% worse than the second worst guy (SA's Warren Brosnihan). It's not just his Wales bias that makes him unbearable. It's his know-it-all smugness in the face of evidence that he's so obviously wrong that really grates. Why the BBC pay him a salary is beyond me.

And well done to Aus, although that last pass was forward. But who's counting anyway?

I don't think that was a forward pass.
I'd call it flat, and would be shocked to see that pulled up. Those always get let go, and rightly so.
It would be a difficult game to play if that was pulled up.

And it is funny how bias Jonathan Davies is. Brian Moore isn't any better as well.

I actually prefer listening to the NH commentators for these games, because you can see how much they want their team to win and when Wales lose, it's funny to hear them try and suppress their disappointment.

1. I disagree with this perceived wisdom that bias a bad thing in commentary. I like to hear commentators get behind their team and showing a bit of passion. Look at the Aussies, who offer some of the most entertaining commentary - they are biased as hell but funny with it.

2. Jonathan Davies is passionate about Welsh rugby but is NOT biased. He makes some incorrect statements but they're not biased in favour of Wales. I reckon his wrong calls are mostly on foul play and dangerous tackles, where he simply refuses to accept that the laws have changed. Three examples leap out in my memory. He was practically out of seat and punching the ceiling with glee once when someone made a covering tackle on James Hook - can't remember who Wales were playing but Davies was just celebrating good rugby regardless of the teams. Wales v Fiji a couple of years ago, Fiji 10 Bai lifted Halfpenny (I think) and inserted him into the ground shoulder-first and got carded (can't remember if red or yellow). This was fairly soon after the lifting tackle directive and Davies spent most of the rest of the game fuming about how the tackle against a Wales player was fine. You could argue he was wrong but biased, no way! More recently that Samoan clearout on Biggar, are you trying to tell me Davies was biased in claiming there was nothing wrong with that!?

3. Brian Moore - biased? Get the fuck outta here!! I can't imagine a commentator of any other nationality being so abusive towards his own countrymen. By all means tell me he has an air of superiority, spends too much time criticising referees or sounds like he's got a mouthful of spanners, but you simply cannot make a case that he's biased.

4. If you're going to whinge about bias, the adjective is biased; bias is a noun. mode>

If you look at what I said, I didn't say it annoyed me, I said I found it funny.

And I never said all commentators weren't biased. Of course they are. All of them. They all favour their own nationality.

As I said, I like listening to the Northern Hemisphere commentators more than the Southern. I don't mind Davies at all, as you say he usually supports good hits, which is great, because I'm of the view that alot of legitimate hits get penalised simply for being effective. I thought Palu's hit on Rees was perfectly legitimate in this game for instance.

All i was saying is that I can tell how much it disappoints the NH commentators when they lose to SH teams and I enjoy it. Which is pretty petty, I admit, but it's a bit of harmless schadenfreude.

And mate, come on, don't be a grammar nazi. I'm sorry I used the noun and not the adjective, but doesn't it really matter?

Jon, on point 4, I did try to add comedy brackets indicating I was in pedant mode, but ballsed it up. Don't worry about it, (but bloody well get it right from now on ;) ).

Katman, whose posts I usually enjoy, has been moaning about Jonathan Davies after every game during these tours. He is a good commentator and I was disconcerted to see someone agreeing that he's biased, which is clearly not the case.

We do all realise that Davies wasn't commentating on this game, don't we? It's Eddie Butler. Good, just checking!

Clearly that doesn't change the fact that Davies is a useless, whining, one-eyed idiot. Butler is no better, though to give him his due, at least he doesn't whine. I suppose that, having grown up with Bill McLaren's commentaries, I find it hard to listen to most commentators without grumbling about something.

Yup I do realise Davies wasn't commentating in those highlights, I heard him spouting off his usual one-eyed drivel after the match and that's what prompted me to make my original comment. Every time I DO hear him commentate I think the exact same thing.

My point isn't that bias is a bad thing, I'm fine with it as long as it's not concealed as objective/"neutral" commentary. I'm with you on the Aussie commentators, it's entertainment rather than commentary and they don't try to hide their biases but play to them. You can kind of tell Davies is trying to be neutral wrt Wales, but he simply can't carry it off convincingly. I'd put Stuart Barnes in the same bucket for England, however he's just a stupid oaf.

Hmm personally never got annoyed by Jonathan Davies, always thought he did an alright job in the games I've heard him commentate. I got really annoyed at the commentator in this game though. Thought he was really biased towards Wales (not only cheering for them, but always criticizing the ref for just about every decision against Wales and saying how he was too lenient on the Aussies, like when he didnt card Palu for his beauty of a tackle). It also annoyed me when he was whinging about Sharpe taking the conversion.

Ha I agree about the whinging as Sharpe took the kick, recall he said something about it being "disrespectful" and that's why the Welsh crowd were booing it - what a load of bollocks, let the lad have a kick in his last game! You could also hear his disappointment as Beale ran to the corner for the try...

I don't get all the hate JD receives as a commentator. Yes he is a little bias at time, but put a passionate countryman in a commentary position for his own team, he's bound to get a little excited, they all do it. I also think he provides the most comprehensive commentary on back play I've heard. He spots overlaps, miss matches, chip kick opportunity's, full backs that have wondered off, I find this a welcome break from most commentators just focusing there everything on the breakdown situation. The man is a legend in both league and union, he knows what he's talking about!

Don't get me wrong, he is right about 99% of the stuff he says, however, like I said, it's very "Captain Hindsight".... "yeh, thanks, we know we cocked up, hence why we were 1 metre from the opposition try line and all of a sudden we're 1 metre from our own try line"...

I never found him hugely biased. He loves Wales and so on, but he is quite critical of Wales, and any foul play that occurs normally leads Davies to comment about the use of a card. He knows what the laws are etc, so a punch is a red card, but the guy only gets a yellow and Davies is on about a red card for the rest of the match which is a little tiring.

But yes his voice drives me insane! Luckily I don't have to hear him all too often!

Rough loss for the welsh. Good for beale though he needed a game where he finally did something productive as a 10. Not his position but well played from Kurtley

Heart breaker for the welsh side all the same, But a shock to the system perhaps. They need to change up personnel or something, cause there team isnt working. yes I know this loss was close and im a huge welsh supporter, but its time to give in. Priestland out, Halfpenney back to the wing. Warburton to the bench cause Tipuric is hands down better at the moment. Possibly bring sam at 8 or 6, but lydiate has to play when he returns. Huw bennett when he gets back from injury as well

Funny though that the best thing Kurtley did was when Barnes played first receiver and Kurtley was shadowing a runner on the wing (as fullbacks do).
Don't think he's a test 10.. Hope someone else will be 10 against the Lions. Either Barnes (despite some of his problems), O'Connor (not really tested), or Leliafano (not tested at test level, though the best flyhalf in Australian super rugby last season)